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Saturday, June 13, 2009

Animated Lovecraft storyline revealed...

Toronto's NOW Magazine has revealed that Hans Rodionoff's Lovecraft is the basis for Chris Landreth's animated Lovecraft feature (that we first mentioned June 6th)! The Vertigo graphic novel was originally written by Rodionoff as a screenplay then adapted by Keith Giffen, with artwork and cover art by Enrique Breccia...

The story revolves around a young Howard Phillips Lovecraft who becomes the reluctant guardian of the Necronomicon, an accursed book that is the doorway to the beyond, and how his life veers into strange territory. From his odd upbringing through his later success as a weaver of "weird" tales, Lovecraft maintains a tenuous balance between reality and the bizarre nightmares of his "fictional" horror...

When asked about his adaptation of Lovecraft, Chris Landreth had this to say, "I am dreading it with every fiber of my body, but I'm also more excited about it, so it's a perfect mix. We're expanding on that graphic novel [Lovecraft] quite a bit; it's going to be historically touching on the biographical points of Lovecraft, of course, but we are going a few steps further, which is the reason it's going to be animated."

I just bought and read the new Lovecraft comic from Vertigo and it is outstanding! There's a great introduction by John Carpenter in which he praises Lovecraft quite highly and acknowledges his debt to the Old Gent. But the comic itself is simply amazing. The story weaves together Lovecraft's life with characters and concepts from the Mythos. While this isn't particularly original (August Derleth himself probably started the trend), this version is surprisingly moving. Great little details like Lovecraft's belief as a child that he was a girl, and later his role-playing as Abdul Alhazred are wonderfully incorporated. The madness of both his parents, the death of his grandfather, and his growing hatred of New York are all given Mythos spins that could have been heavy handed or demeaning, but writers Keith Giffen and Hans Rodionoff make them subtle and unnerving. The art is breathtaking. I was actually disturbed by some of the panels in a "Jacob's Ladder" sort of way. Enrique Breccia's drawings of Shoggoths, Brown Jenkin, the Lovecraft family etc. are twisted and wonderful. His use of color wonderfully conveys the shifts between realities.

This is yet another of the high quality Lovecraftian comics published in the last few years. After decades of maltreatment (much like in the movies) Lovecraftian comics are truly having a rebirth of creativity and fidelity.

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